Fromer Breweries in the Midwest

[QCbeerguy]

A friend and I were talking about former breweries in the Midwest. We were wondering if there is a good way to track these down. We are interested in the city breweries that were in each town, not former mega-breweries(i.e. Stroh's, Hams, Old mil) Any help would be appreciated.

[steveh]

As for Wisconsin, I have a book titled "Wisconsin Breweries, Past and Present," if I recall the title correctly. It's published by the UofW press - if that's any help.

I also have a book on Chicago breweries, that I believe is still available - I'll have to look up that title at home.

There's also a book titled "Beers of North America," by Bill Yenne that, while not exact in its technical correctness, has a pretty decent history of breweries big and small.

S.

[unkle bik]

I have a book at home that dealt exclusively with Cleveland breweies. Tomorrow I will post the title.
Amongst the breweries listed:
Standard (Great Lakes has a brew facility on or near the old site) they made Erin Brew.
C. Scmidt - from Philly, They produced Duke & POC.
Gund - The Gund Brothers now own the Cleveland Cavs
Burkhardt's - from Akron. They tried the brew pub business, & failed.

Interesting topic, BTW.

[davesarman]

I have a book titled "American Breweries II". It is a comprehensive listing of just about every brewery that ever existed in every state. I got it at beerbooks.com, if I remember correctly. It gives the dates of operations and I believe also lists the brands they sold. It's a couple of hundred pages long in small type print. It's more of reference book than anything. That would answer your questions, I believe. If you have any questions on specific towns, let me know, I can look them up for you.http://www.beerbooks.com/cgi/ps4.cgi?action=template&thispage=1103&ORDER_ID=140258872

[unkle bik]

I find it interesting that at the turn of the century, every town of importance had at least a dozen breweries, sometimes outnumbering bakeries!
It took the advent of refridgeration & modern transportation to regionalize these facilities. Guess those things we take for granted helped create the megabrewer.

[chazwicke]

http://www.beerbooks.com/

http://www.americanbreweriana.org/

http://www.bcca.com/index.html

http://www.eastcoastbrew.com/

http://www.nababrew.org/

All of these places can be of some help. Most of the beer books written in the USA in the last 30 years have been written by collectors and members of some of the above organizations. I belong to all of them and have been an avid collector of breweriana since the mid 1970s. The organizations above all put out newsletters / magazines that are chock full of great info. In addition some have lending libraries with many, many books that are unavailable anymore anyplace else. Members of these clubs are experts on specific breweries. I collect Christian Heurich and Robert Portner brewery items because they are local to my area and both were very prominent brewers. I would recommend any of the above organizations as you will find lots of expertise on the subject and most members love to discuss their favorite topics.

[chazwicke]

I forgot to add: Becareful when investigating the above organizations. Collecting breweriana is highly addictive as wel as being hugely fun. :)

[HarkJohnny]

some history from my fair city....

http://barrelhouse.com/brewery.html

[Magnew]

Some info on St. Louis, MO brewing history. It hasn't always been just AB.http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/beer.htm

I worked for Opera Theatre St. Louis for many years during and after college. They had their prop and set storage in the old Lemp brewery on the South Side. Beneath that brewery are miles of caves with a large amphitheatre. Some of the other stage hands once went in. Sadly, I was not along on that trip to storage.

[unkle bik]

Originally posted by Magnew
They had their prop and set storage in the old Lemp brewery on the South Side. Beneath that brewery are miles of caves with a large amphitheatre. Some of the other stage hands once went in. Sadly, I was not along on that trip to storage.

Apparently some brewery in Minnesota had the same set-up. Seems 3 teens wandered into the caves the other day and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

[IPAfanatic]

Originally posted by unkle bik
I find it interesting that at the turn of the century, every town of importance had at least a dozen breweries, sometimes outnumbering bakeries!
It took the advent of refridgeration & modern transportation to regionalize these facilities. Guess those things we take for granted helped create the megabrewer.

It also brought access to all those great microbrews!! :p

[IPAfanatic]

Originally posted by unkle bik
Apparently some brewery in Minnesota had the same set-up. Seems 3 teens wandered into the caves the other day and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Yeah, those big sandstone caves were used as naturall refridgeration for beer and cheese. Rumors are that gangsters used them for bootlegging during prohibition. Sadly though some high school kids did die in there this week. A burning fire in one of them drown out the oxygen and they suffocated. I have been in those caves several times and it is really unfortunate that they are so dangerous because they are amazing both historically and geographically (not to mention a GREAT place to party!)

[davesarman]

There are a whole series of caves down by the Mississippi River, I believe. I think it was the old Hamm's or Schmidt brewery that used the caves for lagering. In fact I think there are some caves (Wabasha Street?) that you can take walking tours of where they talk about the whole Prohibition thing and Al Capone using them during that time. Apparently St. Paul was quite a hotbed for mob activity back in the day. Too bad about the kids that died. I guess there are a lot of little cave openings all over the place and to shut them all off would be quite a challenge. Looks like it might happen now though.

[Magnew]

I actually read something in the Pioneer Press (st. paul paper) about some hikers finding cases of 1950s era gunpowder in one of the caves in St. Paul. No one knows how it got there.

[unkle bik]

Originally posted by Magnew
I actually read something in the Pioneer Press (st. paul paper) about some hikers finding cases of 1950s era gunpowder in one of the caves in St. Paul. No one knows how it got there.

How unstable can that stuff be?
Dynamite becomes very unpredictable with age.
(really off topik, here)

[Magnew]

VERY unstable, so the article said.

It is off topic, but you know, that's how things go sometimes.